French mission arrives in Colombia to treat Betancourt

 

A French medical team arrived in Colombia on Thursday on a mission to try to treat rebel hostage Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician who is believed seriously ill after six years in guerrilla captivity.

 

A successful mission would be the first direct contact in years with Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who is the highest profile hostage held in jungle camps by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC guerrillas.

 

President Alvaro Uribe has said he will halt military operations in the area once the medical team has the location where it will treat Betancourt, but it was unclear whether the French government had managed to contact the guerrillas and won their support for the mission.

 

An aircraft carrying the team arrived early on Thursday morning at a military air base in the capital Bogota, a Colombian air force official said.

 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made the release of Betancourt, a former lawmaker captured in 2002, a foreign policy priority. But so far few details have been revealed about the mission.

 

"I have some news, but given the sensitivity of the matter, I can not reveal anything," Sarkozy said during a visit to Bucharest.

 

Latin America's oldest left-wing insurgency, the FARC has been weakened by Uribe's US-backed security crackdown, and violence from Colombia's four-decade conflict has ebbed as troops have pushed rebels into more remote areas.

 

But attempts to reach a broad deal for the release of 40 hostages in exchange for jailed rebel fighters have been deadlocked over a FARC demand that Uribe pull back troops from an area the size of New York City to facilitate negotiations.

 

Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping two decades ago, refuses to cede, saying that would allow the FARC to regroup. He has offered a smaller negotiating zone with an international observation team.

 

 

POOR HEALTH

 

Two top FARC commanders were killed in March, including Raul Reyes, a key contact for attempts to negotiate a hostage accord. The recent strikes against the FARC have raised questions about the rebel leadership and the chances of reaching a hostage agreement.

 

The Red Cross, which has participated in previous hostage releases, has said it has not been contacted by the FARC about the French medical mission initiative.

 

Captives freed in recent months by the rebels in deals brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez say Betancourt is seriously ill with hepatitis. Images from a rebel video released last year showed her sitting gaunt and despondent in a hidden jungle camp.

 

A mother of two who was educated in France, Betancourt has been chained to a tree after several attempts to escape her captors, freed hostages say.

 

Betancourt and her vice presidential candidate, Clara Rojas, were captured at a rebel roadblock while campaigning in 2002 in a southern province even after officials had warned them against traveling in the area.

 

Rojas gave birth to a boy, Emmanuel, while in captivity in a secret jungle camp. She was one of the hostages released in January under a deal arranged by Chavez, a left-winger who has stoked tensions with Bogota by calling for more political recognition for the guerrillas.

 

Started as a Marxist peasant army, the FARC once controlled large swaths of Colombia, but rebels have been driven back in recent years. US and European officials now label the FARC a cocaine-trafficking terrorist group. (Reuters)